Coveney accuses Govt of betraying Cork

If it is true as has been claimed on RTE that Cork Airport will besaddled with a €100M of debt associated with the construction of itsnew airport terminal then we have witnessed the most blatant breachof a political promise in Cork during the lifetime of thisGovernment, according to Simon Coveney TD MEP General Election Candidate for Cork South Central.

‘When Aer Rianta was split up and Cork, Shannon and Dublin Airportsagreed to go it alone, the Government in an effort to get theagreement of management at Cork Airport gave an absolute assurance inwriting, later confirmed by the Taoiseach in the Dáil and directly tothe staff in Cork Airport, that Cork Airport would not be saddledwith the debt associated with the building of its new terminal.

‘The agreement was that the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) would takeon this debt and in return the DAA was compensated by taking over theassets of the Great Southern Hotel Group and Aer RiantaInternational. It’s worth noting that the DAA have since sold theGreat Southern Hotel Group for €220Mmore than the cost of building Cork’s new terminal.

‘For Cork to be saddled with this debt means that passengers willhave to pay a levy making Cork Airport less competitive than itshould have been if the Government had kept its promise to allow thenew Cork Airport to begin debt free.

‘The six Government TDs in Cork City should hang their heads in shameas they have been outflanked and out manoeuvred politically by theDAA. My understanding is that this decision has been taken by theTaoiseach himself to finalise the debt issue relating to CorkAirport. He has clearly demonstrated that Cork is not a politicalpriority even three months out from a General Election.

‘Finally to add insult to injury the DAA are insisting on takingownership of some of the development land attached to Cork Airport.This claim must be strongly resisted as it is a valuable land-bankthat should be in the ownership of Cork Airport.’

1 thought on “Coveney accuses Govt of betraying Cork”

I would say this is surprising, but it’s not, Cork has always been treated as second class by this government. All resources are concentrated in Dublin, for Dubliners. Cork is unimportant and Bertie is completely untrustworthy.